Starting a Desmos Class Activity

To start a class activity on teacher.desmos.com, first make sure you are logged in (check in the top right corner of the page). If you already have a Desmos account for the calculator, you can use that information to log in.

Once you've decided on an activity to begin, you can start a new class by clicking the Create Class Code button on the activity page. This will generate a unique class code.

When you are ready to start the activity with your students, have your class navigate to student.desmos.com and enter the unique class code. We highly recommend that students log in using their accounts when accessing an activity.

To view student responses and work in real time, click on the View Dashboard link. This will auutomatically open the teacher dashboard for that particular session. The class session will remain open indefinitely but students will not be able to access the activity until given the class code.

Pro-Tip: If you click the three dots next to a teacher dashboard, you'll find a pre-populated link to the activity. Simply add that link to your webpage or LMS for easy student access to the session.

25 Comments

I teach high school Algebra 1 and I am looking forward to using this class activity function. Teaching using the TI graphing calculators is a pain in the butt because you spend more time teaching the calculator than teaching the math. If this works as well as your graphing calculator, I will preach Desmos to every math teacher I know.

If you visit your teacher portal (teacher.desmos.com/portal), you can reopen the teacher dashboard for any of your past activities. Select a student from the student list on the left to see that student's work. You can click into any screen to see more.

Can I use an existing file I have programmed in the calculator as a starting point for a Desmos Class Activity? Also, I tried pasting data into an activity graph and it did not work the way it does in a calculator. Any ideas?

Please allow teachers to remove students from the class list during an activity. When students work crashes or they close the browser by accident they have to sign in again and then the teacher gets multiple student sign ins from the same student.

If I plan on teaching the same lesson to multiple classrooms do I need to generate a new class code for each class or is there a way to delete student responses easily so I can keep the same code for every class?

Please make it possible for the activities to be completed via the iPad app and not just through a browser. I love many of the activities but requiring them to be routed through a browser opens too many doors for potential confusion or distraction for my students.

Same question as Lacey and Alexander above--how do I share specific class code activity results with a co-teacher. I need the teacher to be able to see the results without me having to export. Is there a way to "share" a class code with another teacher? Please and thank you.

I created 6 class codes so I could group my six geometry classes, however I am only able to access the most recent 5 teacher dashboards. Occasionally, it will show a link to view all classes, but I can only get the site to do that if I add an extra code. How can I view all my sections without having to do this?